Welcome to NASIOC - The world's largest online community for Subaru enthusiasts!

Welcome to the NASIOC.com Subaru forum.

You are currently viewing our forum as a guest, which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our community, free of charge, you will have access to post topics, communicate privately with other members (PM), respond to polls, upload content and access many other special features. Registration is free, fast and simple, so please join our community today!

If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us.

Well, winter testing is over and the gang have hauled it all Down Under for the first race of the season in beautiful Melbourne. Albert Park is abuzz with what may be one of the few remaining F1 races in this city, if the mayor has anything to say about it.

Who will come out on top? Will Red Bull continue their dominance in qualifying, only to have poor reliability or inter-team squabbling ruin their race? Will Ferrari continue their excellent testing reliability and transfer that into a good race pace? Will McLaren get their reliability issues solved and can they keep up with the red and energy drink cars? Then there's the relative unknowns--Mercedes and Lotus Renault. Very new and innovative designs for them this year could translate into front-runner performance.

Let's not forget this year's "new" toys--KERS and the adjustable rear wing. Overtaking into the first corner just got a whole lot more interesting for people sitting in the Jones, Fangio, and Brabham sections! Maybe I'll see some of you there!

In it. Really looking forward to the start of the season, finally! The tire situation will be interesting but I'm also looking forward to watching qualifying and seeing who truly has the fastest pace. Of course at this point my money is on Red Bull, but hoping that the Mclaren isn't as bad as it sounds.

On the flip side, Button has always been about the best on the grid at conserving tires. I'm guessing that he'll have better race results than Hamilton this year because of that.

I'd guess that the 17.9 seconds would be the loss for a drive through penalty compared to being on track. I bet we'll se at least a few cars use a 3-stop strategy this race, and that whoever the lead few cars are at the start will make their first stop during laps 14-17, where they could make the decision during the race to go with either a 2 or 3 stop strategy during the second stint.

It's kinda strange how Mark Webber has barely been mentioned this year so far. He's an aggressive driver in a great car who knows how to manage his tires so he should do well this year if he still has the fire burning. Seems like since his golden boy teammate won the championship last year, people have written him off.

My dream this year is for him to come out of the gate hard and fast and remind everyone who almost won the 2010 championship. I don't think Vettel has the skill to manage KERS, the rear wing, the new Pirellis AND his race all at the same time. I forsee lots of pouting and general immaturity from him this year.

that doesn't sound right - without refueling, their stops are around 4 sec. of them actually stopped.

True, most of the stops were around 4 seconds. I was just using it as a comparison. If you recall, Button was the first to dive into the pits last year on a drying track and his switch to the dry options vaulted him up the order. Once Seb's brakes failed, Button took over the lead. Button's stop was rather slow, though.

It's kinda strange how Mark Webber has barely been mentioned this year so far. He's an aggressive driver in a great car who knows how to manage his tires so he should do well this year if he still has the fire burning. Seems like since his golden boy teammate won the championship last year, people have written him off.

My dream this year is for him to come out of the gate hard and fast and remind everyone who almost won the 2010 championship. I don't think Vettel has the skill to manage KERS, the rear wing, the new Pirellis AND his race all at the same time. I forsee lots of pouting and general immaturity from him this year.

I disagree. I see a lot of Massa and Barrichello in him. He is a solid #2 driver, who has flashes of brilliance, but is otherwise unable to hold it together at the championship level. This was evidenced by his mediocre drives during the last season and his mistakes. Consistency at the top is not his strong point. Hes consistent in the #5-10 category, not #1-5 IMO.

I disagree. I see a lot of Massa and Barrichello in him. He is a solid #2 driver, who has flashes of brilliance, but is otherwise unable to hold it together at the championship level. This was evidenced by his mediocre drives during the last season and his mistakes. Consistency at the top is not his strong point. Hes consistent in the #5-10 category, not #1-5 IMO.

Everyone made mistakes last year. Vettel - Turkey, Spa. Alonso - UK,Spa, Monaco. Hamilton - Monza, Singapore.
He had a messed up shoulder towards the end of last year, which granted was his own doing, but still must have had some impact on his driving.

While he may not be as fast as Vettel on a single lap, I think he is capable of giving Vettel a run for his money.

Everyone made mistakes last year. Vettel - Turkey, Spa. Alonso - UK,Spa, Monaco. Hamilton - Monza, Singapore.
He had a messed up shoulder towards the end of last year, which granted was his own doing, but still must have had some impact on his driving.

While he may not be as fast as Vettel on a single lap, I think he is capable of giving Vettel a run for his money.

except he had 5 or 6 races where he was mediocre.

Sure he is, but hes not consistent enough to take it away. The only reason he was all the way there in the end was because of car reliability. If his competitors car's (thinking vettel, hamilton and alonso) had not failed them around 10 times this season he would have been a distant long shot for the WDC.

I disagree. I see a lot of Massa and Barrichello in him. He is a solid #2 driver, who has flashes of brilliance, but is otherwise unable to hold it together at the championship level. This was evidenced by his mediocre drives during the last season and his mistakes. Consistency at the top is not his strong point. Hes consistent in the #5-10 category, not #1-5 IMO.

He was consistently in the top 3 as much as anyone else on the grid last year.

Sure he is, but hes not consistent enough to take it away. The only reason he was all the way there in the end was because of car reliability. If his competitors car's (thinking vettel, hamilton and alonso) had not failed them around 10 times this season he would have been a distant long shot for the WDC.

From all information in the news during the season, it appeared besides competing against his team mate and rivals, he was also competing with the management. Under those circumstances I think he fared well. Again I am discounting the races after his shoulder fracture. Anyways, I can't say that he will easily beat Vettel, but as of now I am not willing to write him off Barichello and Massa style just yet.

Webber's problem is he succumbs to pressure relatively easily, just like Massa does. If he can get past this, I think he can win a championship (he also created a lot of the drama with his management too). I also believe people put down Vettel too much because of his age though, so discount my thoughts as you will.

Wow. Last night sucked on an epic level. I was late taking off from Sacramento to LAX by an hour due to weather. When we landed in LA we sat on the taxiway for 30 minutes because the ground crews were overly busy. When we finally parked it took another 10 minutes to get the jet bridge hooked up. All these delays ate into my layover time. I was the first one off the plane and I sprinted from the end of terminal 8 around to the end of terminal 7. With my heart feeling like it's going to explode, I made it to my gate before they closed the door. But it was all for nothing--my bag was not as quick as I was, so both of us are stuck in LA until later tonight.

I guess I'm getting to Melbourne a day later! Some vacation this has been so far...

He was consistently in the top 3 as much as anyone else on the grid last year.

Yeah, but when he wasn't, it was rarely because his car was falling apart, or because of mistakes. There were times where he flat out just wasn't getting it done on the racetrack. He's a tough cat, but I think he needs momentum and he doesn't have it, especially in Australia, especially of late.

I think it is Ill check when I get home The bigging of this season seems less crazy fewer people calling each other stupid come on I thought this was NASIOC or are we all not feeling to passionate this year.

I'm predicting a battle for world champs between Rubio and Webbo, and KERS will kill some one person or at least some one will loose a hand.